Your public relations policies and department are the lifeblood of your company. With good PR, you can see your profits soar and your company grow, but with bad PR, you can see your customer pool dry up. Adapting your public relations policies to fit into a digital media space can be tricky as many of these spaces have their own rules for what is good or bad, which may differ from print media. Since most consumers will research products, services and companies online, it is beneficial to your company to invest in a solid public relations plan for digital as well as traditional media outlets such as social media platforms and newspapers.
What does PR look like in digital media?
There are four main types of media spaces for public relations; paid, owned, earned and social. Digital PR companies can help you develop a solid plan for each of these types to implement in your press releases, website and social media accounts. Digital marketing is becoming more and more run by public relations experts to prepare the market for your brand as well as to prepare your brand for the market. Understanding what customers are looking for, and what they are not, as well as knowing how to release that information on various platforms can help give your brand a consistent voice and bring in loyal clients.
How can you benefit?
Digital shops can help you set up the basics of your website and digital marketing campaign, but PR shops have experience in how the message can be delivered for the best effect. Finding a company which can incorporate both can give you the benefit of working with one team instead of coordinating between many business partnerships as well as a solid and detailed plan to take your brand digitally to the world.
What effects do websites have on PR?
Your website is your digital storefront and can have as much of an effect on your public relations as a physical one would. If your online space does not make the customer feel welcomed, have easily accessible information on related topics and is clearly written, then you will have clients click away from the page. Building your website with PR in mind, and your public relations projects with your website in mind, can entice customers to learn more about your company, products and services while keeping your brand name in the public conversation.
How can you use social media for PR?
Not only can you build a digital following on social media platforms, you can use these sites for your marketing and PR campaigns with many of the same posts. The goal of a PR team is to get your name out there in articles, blog posts and influencer videos in a positive light. When you can share these stories to your various social media accounts, you are letting your followers share the information with their friends and further promote your account. Sometimes you will even have a customer interaction on these platforms which goes viral, keeping you in the conversation and getting your brand identity into the public.
How does SEO factor in?
Search Engine Optimization is the process of creating website content which entices search engine algorithms to place you at the top of results lists. This is usually done on your website alone, but backlinks from relevant and authoritative sources can make your website look better to the web crawlers and Artificial Intelligences search engines use. When your PR team, for example, gets an industry influencer to make a post about your products and links back to your website, then your ranking can go up.
Digital marketing and public relations are blending in ways that can benefit your company. When a PR professional brings his or her experience to your digital marketing campaign, you can improve your search engine rankings, have quality interactions with customers on social media and even get backlinks from quality sources to your website.
